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Thursday, October 13, 2005

A few biz and odds-n-ends items that don't fit anywhere else

EDITOR'S NOTE: I AM TOO TIRED TO MAKE IT ALL FIT, DARN IT. HERE'S WHAT'S LEFT AFTER YOU NEATLY ORGANIZE THE DWEEBING. A SMATTERING OF WHATISITWHEREDOESITGO ---THE FLASHWarner Home Video has announced a Jan. 10 release for THE FLASH: THE COMPLETE SERIES on DVD.

The six-disc series collects all 22 episodes, including the 90-minute pilot movie, from the series that ran one season on CBS from 1990-1991.

The series starred John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen/The Flash and Amanda Pays as Tina McGee. EDITOR'S NOTE: AND IT WAS GOOD, AND IT WAS UNDER-RATED, AND I WAS THE ONLY ONE WATCHING, AND IT GOT CANCELLED. (SIGH......)

Developed for televison by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, writers included Howard Chaykin and John Francis Moore. Danny Bilson composed the theme music.

Among the guest stars were Mark Hamill as The Trickster, EDITOR'S NOTE: AN EPISODE I MIGHT STILL HAVE ON VHS STASHED SOMEWHERE. (ONCE A LUKE SKYWALKER GROUPIE, ALWAYS A GROUPIE, YES?) Richard Belzer as Joe Kline, Angela Bassett as Linda Lake, Michael Nader as Nicholas Pike, Jason Bernard as TheNightshade, Michael Champion as Captain Cold, David Cassidy as Mirror Master and Joyce Hyster as Megan Lockhart.

Hamill, who appeared in two episodes, including the finale, is reprising The Trickster for an upcoming episode of Cartoon Network's Justice League Unlimited. The series' first regular episode, "Out of Control," was recently featured on a bonus disc in Smallville: The Complete Fourth Season.

STAR TREK:Marco Palmieri, Pocket Books editor, announced some of the titles that will be part of STAR TREK's 40th anniversary in 2006.

According to Palmieri, David R. George III's CRUCIBLE trilogy will be released from September to November 2006, with the covers of each novel forming a single and extended piece of artwork. EDITOR'S NOTE: WELL THAT SOUNDS PRETTY NIFTY!

Just prior to the CRUCIBLE trilogy, Margaret Wander Bonanno's long-awaited ChristopherPike novel, BURNING DREAMS, will appear in print in August 2006.

Also planned for the 40th anniversary will be the anthology collection CONSTELLATIONS, set for release in September 2006. And December 2006 will see the release of Diane Duane's fifth RIHANNSU installment THE EMPTY CHAIR. The EXCELSIOR title FORGED IN FIRE,which had been previously planned for release in 2006, will be rescheduled, according to Palmieri.

Palmieri notes that in addition to the new novel releases, all of which are themed around theOriginal Series, Pocket Books will reprint a number of its most popular out-of-print titles with new cover artwork. Bonanno's STRANGERS FROM THE SKY and former TREK story editor D.C. Fontana's VULCAN'S GLORY will appear in August 2006, while Vonda N. McIntyre'spopular THE ENTROPY EFFECT, and FEDERATION, from ENTERPRISE writers/co-executive producers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, will appear in September 2006.

Also appearing is a new trade paperback release of Duane's four previous RIHANNSU novels, MY ENEMY MY ALLY, THE ROMULAN WAY, SWORDHUNT, and HONOR BLADE, set for release in December 2006. EDITOR'S NOTE: OUR PLANO DWEEBPAL KEVIN IS THE BIG TREK AFFICIANADO....KEVIN, YOU'LL HAVE TO FILL US IN ON ALL OF THIS AND IF IT'S ANY GOOD!AND NOW SOME 'DA BIZ' NEWS, INCLUDING SOME SORT OF BEHIND-THE-SCENES GOSSIP ON A TV SHOW.

Behind a Change at Helm of 'Chief' on ABCBy BILL CARTERABC's surprising decision last week to replace the creator of "Commander in Chief," its most promising new series, with the veteran producer Steven Bochco was driven by increasing concerns about production delays on the series, several executives involved with the decision said yesterday.

The show had fallen so far behind on delivering new episodes, the executives said, that ABC feared it might be forced to pre-empt the show or run repeats in the ratings sweep month of November.

ABC also did not want to run repeats this month because executives believe they can establish the show with audiences that are not watching postseason baseball on Fox.

ABC announced the switch to Mr. Bochco on Friday, displacing Rod Lurie, the series's creator, just two episodes into the show's run. It is highly unusual for a network to make such a drastic move on a show that is doing well in the ratings.

Even more unusual was the selection of Mr. Bochco, the much-honored production hand behind some of the most praised network television dramas of the last 20 years, including "Hill Street Blues," "L.A. Law" and "N.Y.P.D. Blue."

Mr. Bochco played a principal role in the creation of those shows, as he has with every show he has been involved with. A spokeswoman for Mr. Bochco said yesterday that he had never before in his career joined a show that another writer had created.

But ABC was under pressure on "Commander in Chief," which stars Geena Davis as the first female president. The show, which has pulled in more viewers than any other new series this fall, has completed shooting only six episodes, including the pilot, which was shot last spring.

Most series that are added to a network fall prime-time schedule begin production in July and have six or seven episodes finished by the time the season starts at the end of September.

One problem with "Commander in Chief," several executives said, was that Mr. Lurie directed many of the episodes as well as supervised the writing. This process led to numerous rewrites and delays, the executives said. The studio even ordered production shut down for a time to allow for the writing to catch up, they added. EDITOR'S NOTE: WELL THIS DOES SOUND LIKE BAD MANAGEMENT THEN, HUH?

Next month is a sweep month, when networks seeking to deliver the highest possible ratings broadcast four original episodes of their successful series. With so few episodes completed on "Commander in Chief," and with the situation becoming no better, as one network executive put it, ABC was in jeopardy of not having enough episodes to fill the month.

Just three weeks ago, Mr. Bochco signed a new contract with Touchstone Television, the television production arm of the Walt Disney Company, which also owns ABC. That deal made him available to step in as what is known in television as the show-runner for "Commander in Chief."

Mr. Bochco is currently serving as an executive producer on the FX show "Over There." FX will make a decision about that show's future within the next two weeks, but based on current ratings, it is unlikely to continue, network and studio executives said.

Yemaya Royse, the spokeswoman for Mr. Bochco, said he did not want to talk about the move to the new series yet.

ABC also said Mr. Lurie would retain his executive producer title on the series. But executives yesterday said that the title would be Mr. Lurie's only continuing association with the show. It will be run entirely by Mr. Bochco, they said, with Mr. Lurie no longer involved at all.

Instead, ABC said, Mr. Lurie will concentrate on creating new series for Touchstone. EDITOR'S NOTE: ONES THAT HE WILL THEN BE UNCEREMONIOUSLY DUMPED FROM?EDITOR'S NOTE: A NEW WAY TO WATCH TV ----

Apple to Offer Way to Watch LOST & More on iPodsApple Computer has introduced a version of its iPod that also plays videos. The video iPod has a 2.5-inch screen and comes with 30 or 60 gigabytes of memory.

Apple has made a deal with ABC which will allow iPod users to download five shows including LOST and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. The entire first season of both shows will be available right away and will cost $1.99 per episode with no commercials.

The lighter, thinner 30GB will sell for $299, while the 60GB version will sell for $399. Both will hold up to 150 hours of video

EDITOR'S NOTE: AND NOW, WHY THIS MIGHT CHANGE THE TV UNIVERSE AS WE KNOW IT?

ABC, iTunes Deal May Break A Few Distribution WindowsA media critique by Wayne Friedman, Thursday, October 13, 2005IN THIS NEW AGE OF video content, the financial model for distribution windows of TV shows has been, well, thrown out the window.

In the old days--the 1990s--cable and syndication would vie for popular TV shows some four years after their initial network launches. Now those two TV distribution windows seem oh-so-analog.

Yesterday Apple's iTunes store broke new ground in making a deal with ABC Television Group that will offer consumers the ability to buy ABC shows such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" for $1.99, a day after they air on television.

What does that do to the traditional value those shows have in the aftermarkets of syndication and cable? Probably not much--at least initially.

Analysts have long debated the value of small-screen viewing. Verizon's V Cast is in a similar field, where people can view video content on small mobile phone screens. Verizon's plan though is to offer--at least initially--short two- and three-minute video programs, not full-length TV episodes.

When consumers buy video from iTunes, they will be able to view not just an entire TV show on an iPod, but also on its big brother the personal computer. TV shows have been moving in this direction especially in the last two years, when programmers decided to debut shows on the Internet, like WB's "Jack & Bobby" last year, and "Supernatural" this year, before their television debuts.

"It's never been done before, where you could buy hit TV shows and buy them online the day after they're shown," said Steve Jobs, chairman of Apple Computer. EDITOR'S NOTE: OF COURSE, THANKS TO DWEEBPAL SEATTLEDENISE, WE NOW KNOW HOW TO STEAL THE SHOWS THE NEXT DAY FOR FREE.

He's right. But the near term isn't about video for Apple or its iPod device. Right now Disney is the only content provider signed on to Apple's iTunes, and iTunes' main revenue efforts for its iPod product--the new video version of which was released yesterday--will continue to be with music sales for the near term.

But for the long-term, television stations, syndication executives and cable networks programming might be wondering about the next round of TV network shows that come to market looking for big rerun programming dollars.

They might not want to pay top prices for shows such as "Desperate Housewives" three years from now, because many viewers would have seen those episodes so many times before.Small-screen viewing then will only mean smaller ratings and smaller revenues for big TV screens. EDITOR'S NOTE: YEAH, BUT JUST LIKE WITH THE SEGUE FROM NAPSTER (THE ILLEGAL VERSION) TO ITUNES, THIS TRANSITION IS INEVITABLE. DISNEY/ABC IS SMART TO GET IN AHEAD OF THE CURVE AND RUN WITH AN INEXPENSIVE DOWNLOAD OPTION. IT BRINGS IN AT LEAST A LITTLE REVENUE AND STAYS IF NOT AHEAD, AT LEAST NOT MILES BEHIND, THE ILLEGAL DOWNLOAD FACTION. AND YELLING AND SCREAMING ABOUT IT, OR STICKING HEADS IN THE SAND, ISN'T GOING TO MAKE THE TECHNOLOGY THAT MAKES THIS ALL POSSIBLE (AND MAKES US ALL EVEN MORE A.D.D./I WANT IT ON MY SCHEDULE) GO AWAY.